


Two Besotted Marauders

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, First Kiss, M/M, Marauders' Era, Misunderstandings, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-25 22:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4978237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you're in love with one of your best friends, it's always better to ignore it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Besotted Marauders

**October 1977**

"I don't know, James, probably because you're the biggest wanker in all of history," Sirius told his best mate with a shrug. James smirked as he shoved a pile of clothes off his bed and flopped onto the quilt.

"Fairly sure that's you, Padfoot."

"Untrue," Sirius countered, waggling a finger. "You won the title fair and square last term when you made an arse of yourself—"

"Which time?" Peter snorted from his desk, where he was supposed to be finishing his potions essay.

"I do believe Prongs remembers," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows pointedly. "It was to do with a certain ginger beauty and —what did you call it, Prongs? Oh yes, _Operation Lily_ … clever name, that."

"Oh shut up," James grumbled. Sirius dodged the pillow flying at his head. "How was I to know she was already going to the ball with Finnegan?"

"The three thousand times she told you might have been a clue, mate."

"I thought she was trying to make me jealous!"

Sirius smirked. "Which she did."

"Not all of us can be as suave as you, Padfoot," Peter said with another inelegant snort.

"Or at least that's the way Quince told the story after Sirius asked him to the ball," James added, looking highly sceptical over the entire subject.

Sirius made a face as he leaned back against his laced fingers. "Justin Quince is an intolerable twat."

"Then why did you ask him?" Peter asked, and Sirius was glad their stocky friend was glaring at the new splotch of ink across his parchment. He could feel James' eyes on him as he turned his attention to the ceiling.

"Had to ask someone…"

James cleared his throat. "Hogsmeade tomorrow," he said, the forced cheerfulness too obvious but Peter didn't seem to notice. "Plans? Plots? Obscenities? Gratuities?"

"Are you just listing words that end in 'ies'?" Sirius' lips quirked as he glanced over at his friend.

"Wait, wait," James muttered, holding up a finger as he furrowed his brow, "I have another…"

"Trickeries?" Peter suggested.

"Isn't a word," Sirius told him.

"Factories?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "What fun can we have with a factory?"

"Lollies!" James crowed triumphantly. Sirius and Peter stared at him. He simply smiled, satisfied. "Knew I had another in there. So, what are we going to do?" he asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly. "Our first Hogsmeade weekend as seventh years."

"I think Lily probably has the impression that you're spending the day with her," Sirius said, shaking his head at the look of surprise on James' face. "You've been waiting for years to take Lily to Hogsmeade, you git. Have you any idea how many times I have had to listen to you go on about how you and Lily would hold hands as you walked down the lane making some manner of googly eyes at each other—"

"I never said that—"

"Staring into her eyes; her luscious emerald orbs," Sirius continued, making elaborate kissing noises. "Her red ruby lips and silken, titian hair—" A solid weight landed in the middle of his chest, sending him gurgling on the rest of the speech.

"You make me sound like some sort of bloody… some …" James struggled for the word.

"Wanker," Peter supplied, still hard at work on his essay.

"Utterly besotted," Sirius grunted cheerfully when James dented his diaphragm with a knee.

"You two need to be thoroughly examined."

Startling at the soft interjection, Sirius twisted. His lips melted into a smile. Remus, his brown eyes crinkling with amusement, shook his head as he shrugged out of his robes.

"Only James," Sirius disagreed and then winced as James stole his air once more. "Oy," he wheezed, "you're the one who wants to make googly eyes at Evans."

"She would sick up in my hair!"

"And you'd probably like it, perverted bastard," Sirius said with a wink. Rolling away from James' sudden slack hold, he grinned and popped up in front of Remus. "Thank you very much for the distraction, Moony."

Remus smiled, which sent Sirius' stomach into a tangle of pleasant knots.

"My pleasure," Remus murmured. Sirius hoped no one noticed the quickening pace of his heart just then. Those words, in an entirely different context…

Completely unaware of the effect he was having on him, Remus nudged Sirius' ribs with a gentle elbow. "Going to let me go to the Loo, Padfoot?" he asked, still with amusement. "I would rather not climb over your bed… Lord knows what you're keeping in there these days."

"Keeping? Oh." Sirius stepped to the side, making a clear path. Unsure why he felt suddenly like he was twelve years old again, Sirius ignored it and waved a grand spiral toward the toilet. "All yours, love."

Remus' eyes narrowed the slightest bit and for half a second, the knots coiled tight. But then Remus plucked the neat pile of clothes from his bed and turned away.

"I'm the besotted one, am I?" James grumbled close to Sirius' ear once the door was closed behind Remus.

"How would you like to be the one with the shiner?" Sirius muttered. James took the hint, pulling back and retreating to his bed. He shifted the newest Quidditch magazine from under his pillow, eyeing Sirius over it instead of actually reading.

"Need help, Pete?" Sirius asked, after rolling his eyes at James and turning off all thoughts of Remus under a steaming spray of water.

"Can't remember if Gemini Milkweed is more potent when you pick it during day or night," Peter said around the quill's feather half-hanging from his lips.

"Night," Sirius answered automatically, coming up behind Peter's shoulder. "Strangleweed has no preference," he said, pointing further up the parchment.

"Shit, I thought I had that right."

"Don't worry," Sirius said, clapping Peter on the shoulder, "everything else looks all right."

"Thanks," Peter said gratefully as he applied an erasing charm to the bit about the Strangleweed and ploughed ahead.

"Why're you doing your essay now? It's Friday," James complained from behind his magazine. "And it's not even dinner yet."

"Only have until dinner," Peter muttered. "This was the essay for today."

"Oh right… forgot you burned the original to a crisp trying that neatening charm …" James ignored Peter's sullen glare and flung his magazine aside with a dramatic sigh.

"Problem?" Sirius asked, leaning a hip against Pete's desk.

"I have to think of something brilliant to do in Hogsmeade," James mused. "Something special…"

Sirius smiled at the goofy expression on his friend's face.

"Why don't you serenade her again?" Peter muttered under his breath.

James glowered.

"You know what she likes," Sirius assured him, quieting Peter's next suggestion with a cuff to the back of his head. "Don't over think it."

"Yeah," James sighed, his chest heaving in a way generally reserved for the most lovelorn of Shakespeare's heroes.

"You should follow my example," Peter said as he put the final flourish to his last sentence. "I'm taking Sarah to Madame Puddifoot's for tea."

"Pete," James groaned, "tell me you're taking the piss."

Peter's brows furrowed his confusion. "How do you mean?"

"Madame Puddifoot's?"

"So?"

James shook his head.

Peter dropped his quill back into the bottle of ink. "At least I have an idea," he sniffed. "All you have is a serenade. And besides, Sarah loves Madame Puddifoot's."

James smirked. "She's shagged half the seventh years in there, you know."

Peter grinned. "Why do you think I'm taking her?"

James and Sirius let out twin wolf-whistles, cat calls following that and Peter found himself the recipient of several whumps against his back. "Didn't know you had it in you, Petey!"

Flushed, Peter raked a hand through his hair in an awkward imitation of James.

"What are you cretins caterwauling about?" Remus asked with a smile as he emerged from the loo, towel folded neatly over his arm.

"Wormtail's got a date," James said in a stage whisper, waggling his eyebrows like a madman.

Eyes fastened to the damp hair curling at the back of Remus' neck, Sirius didn't hear the rest of the exchange, not until Remus raised his eyebrows, having noticed Sirius' lingering gaze. Sirius swallowed, told his body to behave and flashed a smile.

"That just leaves us then, Moony." If only the _us_ meant the sort that involved googly eyes and embarrassing serenades.

Remus' smile faltered and Sirius watched in fascination as a slow flush darkened his neck and then his cheeks. "Actually," Remus said in an oddly high-pitched voice, "I have a date of my own."

"Of course you do," Peter said with enthusiasm. "You're a Marauder. Er," he amended with a quick glance for Sirius, who was staring stupidly at Remus, "well, you don't have to have a date for Hogsmeade of course, but you could get one, Padfoot; that goes without saying…"

"Shut up, Pete."

Peter fell silent at James' soft order.

"Good on you, mate," James added for Remus. And no matter that Sirius knew James only said it out of duty, something ugly reared up in his chest at the words. "Well, dinner's about to start, chaps—"

"Who is it?" Sirius demanded, the aggression in his voice startling him. Remus' sandy eyebrows rose high in surprise. But only for a moment and then he shrugged slightly as he turned for his bed.

"Justin Quince."

Sirius stared at the back of Remus' head, clutching a fistful of fabric in his hand, his stomach burning as if he'd just been socked.

"Quince?" Peter echoed, gaze shifting to Sirius. "Isn't that the intolerable twat?"

Remus lifted his head. "The what?"

Peter pointed to Sirius with a stubby finger. "Sirius said he was."

Remus lifted an eyebrow, an expression that usually made Sirius feel ridiculously tingly. All it did now was enhance the punched-in-the-gut sensation.

"Then why did you ask him to the ball last spring?" Remus asked.

"I didn't know he was a git," Sirius said, defensive without reason.

The crinkles around Remus' eyes deepened in amusement, though Sirius couldn't possibly fathom why. "Thought he was a twat?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes, in no mood to be teased. "He's both, all right?" And then, with that same belligerence he couldn't seem to control, he asked, "Why are you going with him?"

Even if James hadn't grasped his elbow, Sirius would have known what an idiot he sounded like, just by the way Remus was staring at him. A jealous idiot.

And one who had absolutely no right to be jealous.

He wanted to demand if Remus had asked Quince, or if had been the other way around, but the sheer absurdity suddenly hit him. The embarrassment quickly followed. "Never mind," he mumbled.

Shrugging quickly away from James' grip and the confusion in Remus' eyes, Sirius summoned his wand from beside his pillow and sheathed it. "Isn't Lily waiting for you to walk her to dinner?" he asked, grateful that his voice came out evenly.

Nodding, James plucked his own wand from the table. Avoiding Remus' eyes—and Peter's as well—Sirius turned for the stairs, leading the way.

The silence was oppressive and it only got worse when Lily joined them in the common room. He watched her exchanging looks with James as their fingers tangled together, which elicited an even more ridiculous sort of jealousy.

Not that he had never been jealous of James—James, whose parents didn't despise him. James, who hadn't been disowned. And now he had Lily.

Sirius' throat ached.

And before they had even gone down an entire flight of the enchanted staircase, he knew he couldn't take another step like this, much less sit through dinner. Pivoting sharply, he nearly collided with Remus.

Remus caught his arm, their noses only centimetres apart.

_Fuck, he smells good._

Remus always smelled good, like crumpled parchment and candles melting to the stub.

And his lips… well, they were _right there_. Mint lingered in the air as warm breath fanned across Sirius' chin.

"Oi! Remus!"

Sirius grimaced, recognizing the strident voice immediately. Remus turned slowly, his hand taking its time leaving Sirius' skin. Justin waved his fingers, a bright smile on his stupid, smarmy face as he came down the steps.

"Hello," he said, stepping close and for a wild moment, Sirius was afraid he was going to kiss Remus. But Remus stepped to the left, out of Quince's reach and he only touched Remus' arm.

Only.

Sirius' stomach began to burn. With every instinct screaming at him to break those carefully manicured fingers, Sirius shoved his hands deep into his pockets, turned around again and muttered something about being late to dinner. He wasn't even certain himself what he had said.

He heard footsteps behind him, and Justin suggesting in an eager voice, "Shall I escort you?"

And Remus answering, sounding extremely flustered, "I… Well, yes, all right…"

Bloody hell.

Sirius picked up the pace, jogging by the time he reached the main floor and instead of going on to the great hall, blended into the scrum of students. With absolutely no destination in mind, he threaded through bodies and found himself out the front doors. Which was fine with him.

There was no way in hell he was going to watch Remus being _escorted_.

\--

"If you don't tell him soon, I'm going to."

Sirius' head snapped up, and then he had to squint as the setting sun blinded him. A James-shaped blob stepped in front of him.

"Tell who what?"

The blob plopped beside him. "Don't be an arse."

"Why don't you mind your own bloody business," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Because," James said matter-of-factly, "you are driving all of us mad."

"All of you?"

James shrugged. "Well, Wormtail and me. And Lily."

"Lily?" Sirius repeated dubiously.

"Yes Lily, you wanker. You know… the girl I'm dating."

"How does she even know?"

"Funny thing about being in a relationship," James drawled. "The other person generally expects you to share things."

"Yeah, things about yourself," Sirius grumbled. "Not about your friends."

"When I'm worried about one of those friends," James said quietly.

"Nothing to be worried about."

"Sirius—"

"How does Peter know then?" Sirius interrupted, suddenly very worried that he was giving away more than he meant to.

James sighed. "He doesn't know you're pining for Moony. He thinks you're still upset over Regulus."

Sirius glared at the ripples disturbing the lake's surface. "Maybe I am." He turned an abrupt glare on his friend. "And I am not _pining_ for Moony."

"No?" James challenged. "You're not secretly wishing you were the one escorting him to dinner?"

Sirius laughed, the sound startling James. "If I ever offer to escort Remus anywhere, I hope he socks me in the jaw." He scowled. "Why is he going to Hogsmeade with that git?"

"Because he has no reason not to."

Sirius let his chin rest on his knees once more. "Bloody helpful you are."

"Fuck, you're thick Padfoot."

Sirius slanted him a glance. "That's news?"

James raked a hand through his hair, frustration practically rolling off him.

"What?" Sirius said irritably.

James grimaced. "Nothing, Padfoot… just nothing."

Sirius scowled but before he could demand that James just spill it already, a shadow fell across his legs. He craned his neck and found Lily staring down at him.

"Sorry, Lils," James murmured. "I'll just be…"

"I didn't come out here to tell you to hurry along." Lily didn't take her eyes from Sirius. "I came to tell Sirius that he's an idiot."

Sirius sighed. "Again," he said, "not a big surprise."

Lily crouched down so that she was looking him in the eye. "Everything is just a big joke to you, isn't it?"

Sirius' brow crumpled, but she wasn't finished.

"I'm going to assume you have no idea that Remus fancies you, because even you can't be that cruel—"

"How do you mean, even _me?_ " Sirius' interrupted, straightening indignantly. And then as the rest of her words sunk in, he warbled, " _Fancies_ me?"

"Of course he does. Just look at you."

Sirius looked to James but got only a vague shrug in response.

"Half of Hogwarts fantasizes about you," Lily went on, in her most exasperated tone. "Why shouldn't Remus be one of them?"

Leaving aside the ridiculous notion that he was an object of lust for the student body, Sirius said, "Not to offend, Evans, but I don't think you know what you're on about."

"Remus is my friend—"

"He's my friend as well," Sirius interrupted, that belligerence rearing up again. "And I think I would know—"

"If he's your friend, then why are you doing this to him?" Lily erupted.

"Doing _what?_ "

Lily waved her hands in agitation. "This," she repeated. "This… whatever it is you're playing at, nearly kissing him there on the stairs and then just leaving—"

"Kissing him?" Sirius stood so quickly he almost lost his feet. With more elegance, Lily stood as well. "I wasn't going to kiss him! And of course I left. What else was I supposed to do with Justin standing right there?"

Lily narrowed her eyes. A moment later, they widened. "You're jealous."

"What?" Sirius sputtered.

"You are," she said, surprise tingeing the words. "You're jealous of Justin." She swiveled to James. "You knew he was!"

James sighed. "I told you he wasn't playing a game."

Feeling oddly betrayed, Sirius' gaze switched to his friend. James grimaced, which only stoked Sirius' irritation. "Why don't the pair of you find someone else to gossip about, yeah?"

"Sirius, we weren't—" James grabbed his arm as he tried to turn away.

"Leave off, Potter," Sirius snapped, yanking his arm away. James' face darkened.

"You're a git, you know that? If anyone is googly-eyed around here it's you," he said, stabbing a finger into Sirius' chest, "and if you'd grow some bollocks, maybe you could do something about it."

"I'll be sure to do that," Sirius said coldly. "How long did it take you to find yours, do you think? Six years?"

James' jaw tensed. But instead of a retort, he took Lily's hand and stalked away. Lily glanced at him over her shoulder, her eyebrows pulled together and then she turned back to James, saying things Sirius couldn't hear.

Ignoring the sudden tightness in his chest, he scowled and stuffed his hands into his pockets. Instead of returning to the castle, he went down the sloping hill with no destination in mind.

\--

He skulked back to the castle well after curfew, and only just managed to skirt Filch on his rounds. Mrs. Norris hissed at him, but Sirius pressed himself against one of the moveable walls in the seventh floor corridor and waited until the caretaker's grumbles faded away.

The portraits glowered as he lit the corridor with his muted wand light. "Go back to sleep," he muttered to a particularly sour-faced trio of witches.

"Such impertinence!"

"Yes, but so handsome!"

"Fine features, strong jaw…"

He tuned out the inane ramblings and then had to tap the Fat Lady's frame when he found her snoring. "Oy, would you wake up? It's one o'clock."

Yawning, she finally cracked an eye. "Password?"

"Wallaby Darned."

He waited impatiently while she opened her eyes fully and peered down at him. "Isn't it a bit late for you to be out, dear?"

"I was tending to a friend of mine," he lied. The truth—that he had been sitting in the topmost branches of the Weeping Willow pining for Moony – sounded much too pathetic. "Quite ill, you see. Might be his last few hours."

"Oh my," the Lady breathed as she swung forward. "You poor dear… Were you very close?"

"My favorite carniverous mushroom," he said with a solemn nod. She clucked sadly.

"So sad when one loses… a mushroom!"

He closed the inner door on the rest of her outrage, smiling as he fell into the coziest of the chairs by the fire. But the amusement was short-lived. He had come to absolutely no conclusions inside his willowy cocoon, aside from the fact that Lily was barmy.

Remus did not fancy him, of that he was certain. Lily had got it wrong.

Why else would Remus be going to Hogsmeade with Justin Quince? He'd been flushing over it, for God's sake! And hadn't he accepted Quince's arm like some… some…

Sirius scowled.

Besotted, that's what Remus was. And it wasn't over him.

His limbs as heavy as his misery, Sirius pushed himself up and trudged up the stairs.

Low voices greeted his ears at the top of the long spiral staircase.

"How am I supposed to know where he is?" James was hissing indignantly.

"I don't know, James," Remus said, his voice very stiff. "Perhaps if you and Lily hadn't cornered him—"

"We didn't," James retorted. "And Lily shouldn't have told you—"

Sirius halted mid-reach toward the door. Told him? His heart began to hum in his ears and for a moment, Sirius was afraid it was going to push its way out of his chest. Lily had told Remus?

And Remus, dear God, Remus sounded like he had never been given worse news. Sirius turned, but his legs wouldn't work. And then somehow his feet were no longer on solid ground.

His bloody instincts had him grabbing at air, the door a moment later. He stumbled over the threshold, finally righting himself in the face of two startled Marauders; Peter was snoring in his bed.

Sirius straightened and with a sharp tug for his shirt, found a crooked grin. "Isn't it a bit early for you lot to be up?"

James goggled at him. He looked ridiculous, with his hair at all angles. "It's after one," he finally pointed out.

"Is it?" Sirius asked as casually as he could manage; it helped not to look at Remus. He shrugged out of his robes, tossing them over his trunk. "Lost track."

"Where were you?" Moony's voice sounded strange; too high.

"Got himself a date for Hogsmeade, I'll bet," Peter mumbled into his pillow. "Shag yourself a good one, did you?"

Sirius was about to tell him to mind his own fucking business, but caught the flush on Remus' cheeks just in time. The flush of someone well-shagged. Or at least remembering a satisfying romp.

Steadfastly ignoring the burst of searing jealousy—and something that felt suspiciously like his heart being torn to shreds—Sirius flashed his best leer and wandered over to his bed. "May have," he drawled as he flopped into the tangle of blankets and stretched his arms out. He flexed his fingers before he knotted them behind his head. "You didn't think I was sitting all by myself all night, did you? It _is_ one o'clock."

Peter attempted something like a wolf whistle and ended up dusting his pillow with spittle as he yawned. Remus had gone very still. Sirius could see the disapproval etched in every line of his face.

"What?" he asked, hoping he sounded properly innocent. "Going to go all Prefectly on me, Moony? How are you going to write this one up, eh? Missed curfew due to a marvelous shag?"

Even by the lamplight, Sirius could see the colour bloom across Remus' cheeks. His fingers curled into fists at his side. "You are an absolute prick, Sirius," he said without a trace of emotion, even though his brown eyes were full of fire. He turned and stalked into the loo.

The door closed with a resolute click.

Sirius stared at the door, and could find no satisfaction. He let his arms fall limp to his sides, an unpleasant chill spreading through his belly.

James moved slowly toward him, his dark eyebrows furrowed. He shoved some of the wadded blankets away from the end of the bed; the mattress groaned as he sat. Peter had gone back to snoring.

James cast a privacy charm around them anyway and whispered, "But I thought…"

"Thought what?" Sirius spat. "That I was pining for Moony? Well, I guess you and Lily were wrong, weren't you?"

James, with his hair mussed, and perched as precariously as he was on Sirius' bed, looked lost. "But—"

"Just leave it, will you?" Sirius punched his pillow. He twisted away and only knew he had been left alone when the springs creaked.


End file.
